EVENTS

This weekend, in Ottawa

It’s my last conference of the year: I’ve got a break of over a month after this, in which I get to stay home and write and relax and get prepped for the Spring semester. But before all that, it’s Eschaton 2012, where just to go out with a surge, I’m giving two talks, so that everyone will feel like it really is the end of the world.

It’s not too late to register. You can skip my talks and just go listen to Eugenie Scott, instead, or all those other speakers — this is a big one and there’s no shortage of interesting stuff going on.

The canal won’t be open for at least another month. We only have a few inches of snow right now and it’s chilly but not bitterly cold.

We’ll keep PZ busy, though. The conference starts Friday night and runs through Sunday including a trip to the Museum of Nature on Saturday night (no riding the dinosaurs, PZ). In addition to his two talks, he’ll be on two panels or Q&A sessions. It should be a fun conference.

That at least it should be somewhat less lethally cold than would be late January?

… Seriously, as reported at #4, it’s cool, maybe cold, depending on where you start calling it that, but hardly painfully so. Just below freezing right now, should still be roughly that on Friday, Saturday. There will probably be rain on Sunday, even.

It’s too bad I can’t attend. I’m just twenty minutes away from the venue, (if the traffic is okay). Unfortunately, i’m waiting for a call any day now that will urgently require me to get on a plane to cross the pond.

I wanted to buy PZ a beer, as my way of saying “thank you” for the sterling work he’s doing for atheism & human rights. But i guess there’ll be no shortage of folk wanting to ply him with beer.

@Thomathy #2 – Toronto would have been nice. No having to change planes for me, and that place sounds more exciting than “The city that fun forgot.” (I read that about Ottawa on the intertubes, so it must be true.)

@AJ Milne #5 – September would have been fun. Maybe even October. I live in Seattle, after all, so I’m familiar with chilly weather; I’m more worried about a blizzard coming through and me getting stuck at the airport for three days. But yeah, I suppose the end of November is better than the middle of January.

In any case, the line up of talks looks great, and it will be fun to meet so many of the FtB bloggers.

No, FTBullying happens when you try to object to something I say during my presentation, so I have my mindless fem-washed goons hold you down and forcibly duct-tape your mouth shut so that you can’t exercise your right to free speech.

“The city that fun forgot”… (I read that about Ottawa on the intertubes, so it must be true.)

Well, it is, sure. Ottawa is a very serious city. And we’re very serious people.

We even eat Peek Freans.

… in only semirelated, one of the minor perks of this conference for me has been the name.

It’s a little thing. But y’know, there’s all these little logistical hurdles I have to deal with to make it to something even like this, and never mind it’s actually walking distance, this time. There are still complications.

So on the to do list on my phone, I’ve had this ‘Arrange Eschaton’ item for some months, now. With various minor subtasks, at different times.

I like this, having this on my phone. ‘Arrange Eschaton’. Just because: it seems to me it’s the sort of thing you might find on a Bond villain’s to do list.

(/And even that phrasing is so perfect. It’s like: this is no drama. It’s just one more thing on the list, one more thing to be arranged. Presumably during a lunch meeting. Wash car. Pick up dry cleaning. Arrange eschaton.)

@Gregory #22 – I’m surprised at how long it took for that one to come out.

My favourite wordplay at the start of the end of the world was to talk about our feline mascot, a francophone kitten named “Es”. (Yes I know I risk the wrath of Squididity by mentioning those mammals here, but it’s worth it for the tri-lingual pun.)